the mobile mommy™

Welcome to the weeSchool community! The Mobile Mommy is where we come together to talk about the joys and challenges of parenting, as well as share news about what’s happening in our world. And yep, the blog is called The Mobile Mommy—but we know that dads are always on the go, too. For now it’s blog is authored by your's truly, Julie, CEO and Founder of weeSchool, along with Social Media Manager and Editor Jessica Ashley and Executive Producer Stacy Morrison — two moms who know their way around creating useful, shareable content.

But our great stuff isn’t just here: Be sure to also check out our Facebook page, Instagram Account, Twitter Feed and, of course, our pretty Pinterest boards. We welcome your voice here, too! Have an idea you want to write about? Email us at parents@weeSchool.com. I look forward to getting to know you!

Music feeds the soul, yes. It also feeds the brain by nourishing a child's language development, learning across subjects, and engaging senses and motor skills. When shared, music creates sweet moments of connection. We asked smart parents to share with us how they use music to fuel their families, and here is what they say works, day after day, year after year.

To Make Mornings, Homework and Bedtimes Go Better

"Morning music is the best! Our playlist (Wake up the Kids on Amazon Prime Music) also helps us time the next activity. When Stompy the Bear comes on, it's time to get our shoes on!" - Helen Jane Hearn

"We listen to music in the car on the commute in the morning. I don't think I started this way, but we pick songs, I sing out loud to him, and he giggles while he wakes up. Our current rotation is Fight Song, Brave by Sara Bareilles, and Wake Me Up by Wham! (it is a short drive). We also have dance parties at night (same type of songs) to get our excess energy out. - DeAnn Malone

"I like music to help lighten the mood. Busy chore morning on Saturdays? Crank up the fun-having music so we can get through it a little easier. Last night it was the James Taylor Pandora channel in the background for homework. And we sing, a lot." - Brandi Koskie

"All kinds of music is a soundtrack for my day with my son. We start our morning jamming in the car to the 80's or 90's station. When I pick him up from after-school care we listen to mellow stuff (classical guitar) -- my goal is to spark creativity and conversation. After stories, we listen to Bach. (At least that's what we've had in his player for the last year!) He calls it his "good dreams" music. Really music is just another way for us to communicate with each other- on a different level." - Dresden Julia Shumaker

To Make Chores More Fun

"When I was a child, whenever I woke up on a Saturday morning to my parents playing music, it meant it was "clean the house day." My parents had their albums that they liked, and now, if ever I need inspiration to get up and clean, nothing does that better than replaying the music my kids choose. - Devan McGuinness

For Travel and Commutes

"On road trips, we have a family playlist on Spotify that every family member has contributed to in equal amounts. So there's absolutely no fighting about what to listen to when our diverse group is in the car!" - Wendy Bauer Piersall

To Mark a Moment and Make Family Memories

"Every summer, I pick a soundtrack CD. We listen to it every day in the car and sometimes inside the house, and it seals those summer memories in. One year our soundtrack was the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse CD, and those songs still make me smile!" - Maggie May Ethridge

To Manage Stress, Anxiety, Special Needs and Emotions

"Music has been mode of reducing anxiety for my daughter who also has ADHD. When she was little, there was fear and resistance to get to school in the morning. Now that she plays the flute and in the last year, the piano. This is what centers her and she sounds amazing, too! Five to ten minutes of music in the morning gets her on track for her day." - Michele Miller Monaco

"For me it's my anger blow-spout. When I get super frustrated with the girls, I start singing and fake opera and directing them what I need them to do. It's sort of my humor with music." - April Metz de Montiel

To Help Kids Become Who They Are

"When I was a kid, the only music my parents listened to was classical and marching band music. I wasn't a fan. On rare occasions, I'd catch a pop song on the radio and I'd light up inside, but my parents would often condemn those songs without explaining why. As a parent, I encourage my kids to explore all types of music because I believe it's their choice to decide what speaks to them. Music is so powerful. It affects our moods, inspires us, and often gives us a voice when we can't find the words ourselves." - Mary Hayes

"We jam so hard all the time. I believe that all kids who have two parental figures have one Pop Music Parent who likes what they like and has the responsibility to take them to concerts and listen to favorites on repeat, etc. The other parent gets to do what they want. My dad listened to classical, my mom was my Pop Music Parent. She took me to see NKOTB and got just as excited as me. She let me control the radio and sang along. She never criticized my music. Music is a big thing for me so it was her way of supporting me and my individuality. Now, I'm that parent to my kid. And sometimes that requires me to be a 'Bieleber' and that's fine with me. I'm all in." - Casey Brown

To Talk About Big Stuff and Stay Connected with Kids

"I use music as an entry point to talk to my kids about issues of gender roles and stereotypes, double standards, drug and alcohol use, body image, etc. Pop culture in general, and music specifically, can give us a way into these issues without seeming preachy." - Vikki Reich

"Music is the soundtrack to our family life! We have music playing all the time...from the time we wake to the time we shut it down for quiet time. I grew up the same way and music is part of my core. I'm so happy I'm sewing that thread in my kids and it's awesome! We have favorite songs, lyric jokes, and always share new bands/songs with each other. And then there's the threat song -- 'I'm going to sing a Taylor Swift song if you don't knock it off!'(many, many threat songs!)" - Charlene Prince Birkeland

"How do I use music? As a mode of communication and connection with my kids. In the car -- every minute of every day. We also have a road trip playlist we listen to that all contribute, too. We share music via iTunes family and we are known for Friday night kitchen dance parties. They've changed from all five to a rotating roster of me and eye-rolling teens, but they still participate a lot. Just don't tell their friends. :) My kids have also, since birth, fallen asleep to music. Sometimes it's the birthday CDs I make them and sometimes it is a soundtrack to a movie, Broadway (ahem, Hamilton) or Zelda video game. Pretty much, there is always music in this house." - Cristie Ritz King

To Teach New Skills

"My husband loves to play music (guitar especially) so we have a music corner in our house and have dance parties on the regular. When our youngest was little, and [my husband] was a stay at home dad they had music class daily. With my oldest son, I love finding music to share with him through the message feature on Spotify and he will do the same. We definitely love to sing and dance quite frequently." - Sondra Santos Drahos

"I married a music critic, so music is always on and my kids are frequently challenged to find identify an artist or find the common threads between singers, bands and producers." - Alma Klein

To Bond with Baby (and Big Kids...and Teens...and Grown Children and Granchildren)

"I sang My Favorite Things to my tummy knowing she'd hear it in utero. To keep us both brave and cheerful about ... what was to come. Then the Beatles lullaby tape with 'her' ballad on it that she was named for, called Julia. Then our song - for life - became You Are So Beautiful by Joe Cocker." - Patricia Campbell

"My kids make Siri rap in the car. My car has voice text and it's highly amusing hearing Siri get down with Eminem! I'd like to say it's through the use of soothing music piped through the house, while they do homework and I busy myself in my apron, preparing dinner.... but nope. We make Siri RAP for us!" - Donna Robinson

You don’t need to spend a lot of money on toys to play smart with your wee one! Tons of opportunities to have fun and encourage milestones with your baby or toddler are waiting in your cupboards.

Here are our favorite DIY WeeSchool activities using everyday items you can find in your own kitchen.

Kitchen Assistant

What to pull out of the cupboard: Whatever you’re making or cleaning up

Once baby turns her head toward the sound of your voice, which happens at about 5 months, she’s at a great age to be an adoring audience to your own personal cooking show. Her neck and back muscles are now strong enough to turn as she follows your familiar voice, and her brain is processing speech and sounds at a more responsive rate. These beginnings of conversation can be encouraged where all of us end up talking – in the kitchen! Place baby in a bouncer, swing or even a high chair (if she’s sitting with just a little support), away from a hot stove, knives or other dangers. Then, narrate as you prepare a meal or bottle. Tell your wee one all about your day. Turn on music that energizes or soothes you and dance around the kitchen while you clean up. It all will engage baby, especially when you say her name, talk and sing directly to her. She will let you know she’s tired by turning away, whimpering or conking out in exhaustion. Offering her the job of kitchen assistant will help her with this important language milestone, and also might just lead her to being promoted to sous chef at some point!

Peekaboo, Little Boo

What to pull out of the cupboard: dish towels, oven mitts

From 8 months on, your baby (and later, toddler) will likely love to play peekaboo. This delight (rather than fear) in playing peekaboo shows that his memory is developing and he’s beginning to grasp object permanence, the realization that people or things still exist, even if they are hidden. Take your peekaboo game into the kitchen by hiding your face, his adorable little hands or a baby spoon with a clean dish towel or oven mitt. Soon he will be playing peekaboo with you and you can test out your theatrical surprise face over and over (and over and over) again!

Cereal Cheers

What to pull out of the cupboard: Cheerios or dissolvable baby puffs, small plastic bowls or ramekins

Your baby will be ready to feed herself at about the seven-month mark, and this milestone is celebrated with little crackers, banana slices and all kinds of culinary curiosities! Turn finger food into finger play by placing Cheerios or puff snacks on the high chair tray (she likely also will be ready to sit up alone with support at about the same time, so be sure she’s secure and can focus on fine-motor skills with the cereal or crackers). Show her how to move them around, and soon you will be able to offer small bowls or ramekins for her to drop the cereal into and pull the cereal out of. There are books designed for cereal play, or you can create your own by drawing shapes on a piece of paper or placemat so she can make up her own games. Whoever gets a snack while making milestone progress wins!

Hand Off

What to pull out of the cupboard: baby spoons, sippy cup or other safe, medium-sized gadgets that fit in baby’s hand

Pass a baby spoon or palm-sized, safe kitchen gadget back and forth with baby. Show him how you transfer it from hand to hand, then use it as a drumstick or microphone. Then, pass it back to him to see how he explores this new tool. Your game will develop as he meets his milestones. At 6 months, he will be developing the fine-motor skills to grip, release and transfer an object between his hands. By 7 months, he will be able to hold two objects, one in each hand. By 8 months, he will be able to hold a cup on his own, and by 9 months, will not be happy when you take that object away. Pass the time as you wait for your coffee to brew in the morning or use this game as a prompt that dinner is on its way. And just think, eventually you will be handing off the sandwich bags so he can make his own lunch!

Getting the Pan Band Back Together

What to pull out of the cupboard: Pans in all sizes, silicone spatulas, whisks, wooden spoons, a strainer

My mom calls this the Pan Band, and even has a rhythmic little song that her grandchildren can beat along to on pot drums with spatulas. She’s the one who taught me to have one low cabinet that’s accessible to my toddler with items in it that are always OK to play with if mom or dad – and especially Grandma! – are around to supervise. Show your toddlers how to make different sounds by running a wooden spoon across a strainer and then an aluminum salad bowl. Sure, it is loud and raucous to let little kids have a big instrumental solo on pots and pans, but they love it and it is one more way to make music together.

Advanced Band Camp

What to pull out of the cupboard: Cookie tins, dry rice and beans and pasta, chopsticks, soft spatulas

Once your musician has mastered the Pan Band, promote her to the percussion section. Fill cookie tins or plastic storage containers with dry rice, beans or pasta (seal the edges with clear mailing tape if they are not snug-fitting so that any spilled food won’t present a choking hazard). Then, use take-out chopsticks or soft silicone spatulas to hit the drums. Even better, show her how to shake-shake-shake it out to the beat! Research shows that babies who participate in interactive music activities smile more and are soothed easier. Music also encourages language skills as well as pattern identification and anticipation in babies.

Bless This Mess

What to pull out of the cupboard: towels, broom and dust pan, spray bottle filled with water, new sponge

Is your wee one in that glorious helper stage where he delights in assisting you with household tasks? Show him how to have fun cleaning by pulling out baby-safe water spray bottles, new sponges and other gear to make the kitchen shine. Boost the activity by making up a clean-up song. Your cabinets will be the cleanest they’ve ever been – from the floor to two feet high!

Stacking and Sorting

What to pull out of the cupboard: plastic storage containers and lids, unbreakable bowls and cups of various sizes, big and small spoons

Once baby can sit up on her own (at about 7 months) and stand alone (about the time she turns 1), she will love to play with small plastic containers and bowls. The more her self-help skills emerge, like picking up a cup with two hands, the more fun she will have with this activity. Even more exciting, just after her first birthday, she will begin stacking blocks – or in this case, bowls – which are a blast to build and knock down, over and over. Later on, as she nears her second birthday, you can ask her to point to the blue bowl or give her simple instructions like putting the orange cup inside the red bowl to encourage language milestones.

Water World

What to pull out of the cupboard: colander, small plastic bowls and cups, dish soap, an apron

Your toddler has just learned to wash and dry his own hands! Somewhere between his second and third birthdays, he’s accomplished this important self-help milestone that encourages lifelong healthy hygiene habits. Now give him a little fun (and well-supervised) time at the kitchen sink to learn how to wash dishes. Stand him on a sturdy step-stool in front of you and fill the sink with a bit of water and maybe even some dish soap bubbles. Show him how to scrub and rinse unbreakable dishes with a cloth or sponge. And just for fun, run water through a colander, strainer or slotted spoon to make a kitchen sink waterfall! Warning: Even with an apron, you will probably both get drenched. Worry not, toddlers also love to wipe up puddles (and parents) with clean dishtowels.

I recently pulled out my son’s play kitchen set from storage. After being tucked away for 10 years, the fake fridge was still stocked with (empty) containers! Egg crates, pudding containers, cereal boxes and coffee tins lined the shelves. I’d forgotten how much fun he had playing with “real” food like mommy cooked in the big kitchen. Fill your little one’s play kitchen or a picnic basket with cleaned out and empty containers, plus plastic spoons and napkins, so that they can cook and serve alongside you. Of course, you will be sure to tape down any sharp cardboard or plastic edges or anything not safe for a toddler’s mouth or hands. This activity is perfect as your wee one becomes more and more engaged in pretend play, right around the 32-month mark. This social milestone helps develop creativity, flexible thinking and executive functioning skills (and is so much fun for everyone).

Hey, smart parents! How are you having fun playing in the kitchen with your wee ones? We want to hear your brilliant DIY ideas.

My son used a pacifier, lovingly and devotedly, until he was 4 years old. Yes, 4.

As far as I can tell, he hasn’t suffered because of it. He doesn’t carry any residual speech issues or emotional dependencies. My Mother of the Year trophy hasn’t been rescinded, and the pediatric dentist confirmed his inevitable orthodontia has nothing to do with the pile of binkies in his baby keepsake box. Deep breaths. It was all okay. Eight years later, it still is.

“Every kid has their vice,” my educator mother said, one eyebrow raised. Other parents fret over potty training or a kid who cusses or one who has never napped and never will. My best friend’s son had a stuffed squirrel that was crunchy, even after a run through the washer, because that child would never let it go (not even while mid-sneeze or mid-pee).

Because my boy’s vice was the paci, I heard all about the dangers and devilishness of allowing the habit to go on (and on and on). You know those gasps and warnings. If you haven’t heard them over a pacifier, you’ve heard them for your child’s thumb sucking, bottle dependency or whatever version of the crunchy squirrel they’re snuggling with at the moment.

Admittedly, the pacifier love went on a little long. But its beginnings, in those early days of screaming infancy and parental exhaustion, were innocent and actually quite in line with healthy development.

Sucking a pacifier or thumb for comfort is a milestone that pops up right around month five of your little wailing one’s life. It’s an attempt at self-soothing, and therefore one of the earliest developments of self-help skills. We all get overwhelmed, scared, sad, tired or lonely, and how we cope can be wound back all the way to the nights when babies start sleeping for longer stretches. Instead of waking and crying, a baby’s brain develops enough to self-soothe back to sleep. There’s some evidence that comforting ourselves as babies can make us more adept at managing our behavior when we are older.

At the five-month mark, it’s also fine to let your baby cry a minute or two if he’s crying so that he has a chance to find his own self-soothing method. Rather than rushing right in, this brief parental pause could encourage an important milestone and be the beginning of your baby’s own comforting skills.

If you baby does find her thumb or pacifier, that might also mean a little more sleep for you (an important parent milestone you’ve been hurling yourself toward since day one).

As important as this milestone is, my son clearly took it a little too seriously for way too long. I am also not going to glamorize the hour I spent searching every nook and cranny of our car with a flashlight in the dark when he tossed the pacifier from the car seat on a road trip. I don’t want to add up how much we spent on pacifiers over that four-year love affair. And I am delighted my daughter has never taken or wanted a binky (insert a sticky stuffed owl here, however).

But was the pacifier the devil? Not at all. No matter what judgy older ladies at the grocery store or my father-in-law said. It was a sign my son was studying up on taking good care of himself after he left the crib. Really, really good, long after he left the crib.

Do you feel guilty or judged for your wee one’s self-soothing binky, baby or blankie? How do you deal?

Get ready for a shock that may shake you to your parenting core: I despise Dr. Seuss books.

They grate on my nerves so much, I’ve hidden them behind stacks of board books on the shelf, “misplaced” them under couch cushions and, if forced by a super-cute whining child, pretended there is only one sentence on every page (rhyming? Dr. Seuss rhymes?).

As much of a Seuss fan as you might be (bless your heart), I bet we can all agree that there are kiddie books we never want to open again. I imagine nearly all of our children have at least one favorite picture book that takes unbearably long to read. We have all certainly listed kinds of farm animals, dinosaurs or clothing items a gazillion times in our baby’s short lives. And I will bet that most of you have a kid who cannot get enough of a licensed-character book Grandma bought at a garage sale for a quarter. Book time can definitely be a bear.

Still, science tells us all of the reasons we should be reading to our toddlers every single night(or day or nap time), whether princess-fairy-unicorn adventure tale or the one about all the crayons who go missing. The discipline helps our toddlers build:

Of course, outside of your own personal feelings about a certain bedtime read, there are bedtime schedules and multiple trips to the potty. And lullabies. And the inevitable string of unanswerable small-child questions. All of these things interrupt the big benefits of spending a few quiet moments reading aloud with your little one.

How can you get past the schedules and Seuss disdain? Remind yourself that those few minutes pack a big punch in boosting your child’s brain power.

It takes three little minutes to read Oh, the Places You’ll Go (yes, I tested it). While kids are in the picture book stage, I bet most can be rattled off – even with animated voices – in that amount of time or less. This is pretty major parenting ROI.

If you are up for more, then think how much good you are doing for your toddler’s growing brain if you spend ten minutes on three books! If she chooses one book, you choose another and you pick the last one together, you’ve also started practicing social skills of sharing and compromise.

Power up that time even more with book-club inspired questions. One strategy academics call Text Talk involves asking the child open-ended questions about the story after you’ve read it aloud. This approach guides children to construct meaning, with the goal of growing their comprehension skills and language development. This is a highly studied and carefully developed literacy strategy, and parents can incorporate pieces of it daily. Asking your child a few questions about each book will show him that your family loves to discuss literature, will give him an opportunity to think and react to what you’ve just read, and – who knows? – may even make you love the text once you’ve heard what he sees and hears on each page.

See what you can do there in three, five or fifteen minutes? You can give your child a daily assist toward being a fluent and happy reader, engaged and successful in school, and communicative at home. You can add more words into their rapidly growing mental vocabulary list. You can help them learn about big concepts that may not otherwise come into your home or family life. You can share really great (and, ok, a few mediocre) stories with them.

If all those reminders about the brain power and milestones and insights don’t make you hate Dr. Seuss any less, maybe the cute, cuddly kid on your lap will. One day those toddlers will grow up to slink off to the bouncy chair in their room to read sci-fi and Mad magazine and weird graphic romance novels and all kinds of stuff you’ll never know about, and that few minutes poring over the encyclopedia of trucks will seem pretty great.

PS. Rhyming is not only fun, it is great for powering up your little one's brain! It helps develop the ability to break down words, learn spoken and written language rhythms, and spell. Whether you rely on Dr. Seuss to guide you through or it is silly songs you choose, tack on some rhymes before bedtime!

My son is an urper. This is how we refer to his propensity to vomit any time he is in a moving vehicle, every time he has a cold or allergies or worse, and sometimes, just for no reason at all. At 12, the kid is so good at managing puking that he carries a plastic bag in his backpack, and has occasionally randomly popped out of a bathroom with a “Well, I barfed!” (We’ve had him thoroughly tested by pediatricians and gastroenterologists and he’s healthy, I promise. He’s just an urper.)

Back in the early days, when he was a tiny baby secured backward in a car seat and I was the one managing the urp, it was not so easy. Particularly on road trips. That I took with him alone. If there’s a gas station bathroom along I-65, I’ve likely stopped in it to change out my t-shirt and his onesie and swipe a stack of paper towels.

On what should have been a three-hour trip with my mother along this very stretch of highway, my baby boy, who was then about nine months old, vomited so many times that it took us nearly seven hours to make our way from rest stop to McDonald’s bathroom to any shoulder we could pull off on to clean up the baby. On stop number four, when I was using the last of the Costco-sized box of baby wipes I’d brought with me to clean the gunk from all the crevices of the baby, the car seat and the window (oh, yes), I said earnestly to my mom, “You know, a lot of the people I know who aren’t parents are so grossed out by this kind of thing. But the reality is, it happens, you clean it up—you just do it.”

She nodded, handed me a wadded-up Dunkin’ Donuts napkin for myself, and we continued on.

Two stops later, I rescinded. This time I was crying. And laughing.

“I LIED,” I admitted. “This is effing disgusting.” (My language may have been a bit more colorful than that. You’ve been there in some way or another, you know.)

She started laughing and even my beautiful boy giggled, and then I took a plastic tablecloth that was, for some unknown reason, stashed in the trunk of my mom’s car, and made a tent that stretched from my baby’s neck across the whole back seat. I was out of wipes, baby clothes, my own clothes, scavenged napkins and towels. And, so, dammit, this puke trapeze was going to have to work.

This, mama friends, is when I earned my Urp Mastery Badge, one of many milestones I have passed on the highway of having my first child.

And it was followed up about nine months later when my boy unleashed his breakfast all over me as well as inside the sling he was wrapped in just as our plane landed. By then, though, my mom (who was #blessed to be sitting next to me) and I were far more adept at this gross stuff. By the time the plane pulled into the gate, I’d skillfully pulled him out of the sling, yanked off all his clothes, bathed him and my own hair in baby wipes and a bottle of travel-size hand cream from my purse, re-dressed him in size 18-month jeans and denim jacket I’d stashed in the carry-on, pulled off my top while baring my nursing bra to nary a soul, put on my mom’s zip-up sweater and chomped 1-1/2 mints from my mom’s pocket to keep me from gagging. We walked into the airport as if we were professional travelers. (Except for a faint stench of pureed peaches.)

Being skilled at air sickness recovery and car sickness survival served me well, though. A couple years later, when my son’s dad dropped him off at our home and casually mentioned, “He doesn’t look well,” I knew—I KNEW—he was going to lose it, and on me, and I was okay with it. And I was. Well, okay with the vomit in my hair and all down my dress. Just not so okay with its filling my new and rather expensive purse. (A new level of gross.)

Today, when I see the familiar more-than-nausea look cross his face, I know we (and even he alone) can get him to a safe place to be sick just fine. I know I have the supplies at the ready in the car (including that same tablecloth), and I know I have more than a decade of experience to rely upon if (and when) the stomach bug takes this urping thing all up ten or twenty notches.

Hey, maybe urp-management will serve him well in college. Or when he’s cleaning up after his own kids one day far down that crazy milestone highway.

Those milestones have certainly been important for me. They are a part of my mothering, and they have given me the opportunity to laugh, cry, gag—and then pull together all my wits and resources to handle the situation and care for my kid.

Those mama milestones keep coming. I made another motherhood memory last spring when, after five full months of trading sickness around our family of now-four, we had a big finale of getting a horrendous stomach flu all at once. And hey, I’d never been so violently sick while cleaning up after a barfing tween, a barfing toddler and a barfing boyfriend before! So that was a new one. (Slow clap for that achievement.)

I share all of this not because I wish to conjure a long roadway of car sickness for you, but because I think we have to tell the truth of these moments of parenting that feel simultaneously harrowing and honorable. We have to be able to weep and nod in agreement and make a mental note to line our designer handbags in plastic grocery bags, together. We have to say, “Yes, mama, I get it. I’ve been there. I feel you.”

That is why we at weeSchool are bringing you Mom Milestones, to mark those moments of wonder, disgust, and how-the-hell-did-I-survive skills only the cast members of “Naked and Afraid” can relate to. It is our little space to mark each rest stop on the exhilarating, exhausting, very messy parenting trip.

What have been your greatest Mom Milestones? Share them here and you might see us mention your story on Facebook, Instagram on right here on the blog.